I have been doing this column for a very long time. In all that time
I've had a long standing policy that when someone sends me a letter that makes them come off as a raving
loony or an idiot, I don't print it, or if I do, I at least don't call attention to the fact.

Lately though, I've been getting an inordinate number of such letters, and news has been slow, so tonight
I'm going to break that policy and let you have a glimpse of some of the stuff I have to deal with.

back a few years ago when the saturn and psx were
released, I remember both having a price tag of about
$300-$400, and alot of people rushed out and bought
both. The same thing happened with the 64, it had a
tag of around $300 I remember seeing, and people again
rushed out and bought it. Then the DC, which a year
ago I was quoted as selling for $250 and once again
people rushed out and bought it. Now why do those
same people, which mostly includes you goog, insist on
complaining about the ps2 price? I personally think
that $200 is too much to ask for the cube, an upgraded
version of the DC.

Evil Googleshng:
1- I personally am "most" of "alot" of people? Wow.
2- My Nintendo 64 I bought launch day for $200. Not $300. The Dreamcast launched at $200, and by the end
of last year was selling for $50. For MY PSX and Saturn, I paid $100 and $20 respectively. I'd
quote their launch prices too, but I honestly wasn't paying attention at the time.
3- Not only is the GameCube not by any stretch of the imagination an "upgraded version of the DC", it
is VASTLY superior to the PS2 in terms of graphical power. For that matter, as hard as it may be for you
to believe, thanks to Sony skimping way too much in every area but processor speed, even the Dreamcast
is capable of churing out better looking graphics than the PS2. If you haven't seen the evidence to support
this, then I suggest you take a good hard look, and/or read up on the actual hardware specifications and
what they really mean.

The bottom line: I don't believe any video game system has ever been released that's worth paying more
than $200 for.

There's a fine line between sloppy typing and...

y r all the cool GBA rpgs all in jAPNESE yyyy will they ever b a jpanese game in america im searchin high and low all that i found was golden sun and mega man bn all the cool games r in japan yyyy.

Evil Googleshng:
I'll be printing one of the more legible letters asking for GBA recommendations tomorrow.

Note the grammar.

will ROBOT WARS ADVANCE BE GBA IN AMERICA soon. if not can u list a few good gba games[other than golden sun ] . thank you

Evil Googleshng:
Assuming you meant to ask "Will Super Robot Wars A be released in America soon?" The answer is no. Not
soon, not ever. The same goes for the rest of the series. Amoung other reasons, in this country, the
patents on the source materials are held by about a dozen different companies.

This is the entirety of this e-mail:

you bastards!

Evil Googleshng:
Is there any particular matter over which you are upset?

OK, I have to trim a lot of fat off this one.

11) If the gamecube succeeds and succeeds well, it
might mark the end of progress in the industry.

Evil Googleshng:
Do I even need to explain this one?

The Last Laugh:

... and that my friends was just out of the mail I received TODAY. Quite tame compared to some of the
other letters I've seen over the years, or heck, even the last couple months. Some are downright hysterical,
so it's a shame my mailbox purged'em all like I mentioned Friday.

Anyway though, I got a lot of good mail to which I'll be printing much of tomorrow. Also tomorrow,
Bullets McDeath will be here again.

For those of you who forgot or weren't here however long I started this, if you send Bullets one of the
games he's looking for, then you'll get to guest host for a while, and have a random reader send YOU
a game YOU'VE been looking for. The current request list: Super Mario Advance 2, or the GBA version of
Breath of Fire.

Oh, and some things I should probably address before I go:
To the staggering number of you who wrote in regarding that equation in yesterday's column title, that
"!=" was C notation for "not equal to", not "factorial, equal to"

People saying they read elsewhere that the FF7-9 remakes were "put on indefinite hold" and not "cancelled"
should note that when talking about remakes, the two terms mean the exact same thing. Sure, they might go back
and remake them later, but the plans they had to remake them in the near future were cancelled.

Many many people responding to something over the weekend I read over pointed out that certain brands
of 3rd party memory cards, particularly those with extra capacity, suck bigtime. I believe that's common
knowledge. A couple also pointed out that Japanese PS2 memory cards work in U.S. PS2s, which is less
common knowledge.

Finally, MANY people happened to ask for GBA RPG recommendations. You'll get some tomorrow.